Category Archives: Behind the Scenes

News21 sent reporting teams to Tennessee and Florida this week, but back in the newsroom, reporters and editors hunkered down to begin working on stories and videos that detail the initial findings of our investigation on voting rights.

Today in the News21 newsroom, reporters and editors gathered for a student-led brown bag discussion on investigative journalism.

News21 sent a team of reporters and editors to the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference last week in Boston, and those who attended shared with the newsroom helpful tools for more efficient, in-depth investigative reports.

Here’s a look at what the News21 team was up to today:

A.J. Vicens gives a presentation to the newsroom on how use data for better storytelling. Vicens and several other News21 fellows traveled June 13-17 to Boston to attend seminars at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference. Photo by Michael Ciaglo/News21

News21 fellow Emily Nohr presents a lesson on Google Fusion Tables to the newsroom after returning from five days at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Boston. Photo by Michael Ciaglo/News21

The News21 newsroom is a space for constant collaboration and teams of reporters have been meeting and trading ideas about how to best share our investigations of voting rights and voting in the United States.

Here’s a look at what the News21 team has been up to:

News21 fellows Andrea Rumbaugh, left, Maryann Batlle and Carl Straumsheim collaborate in the Chyron Media Center at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Photo by Michael Ciaglo/News21.

News21 fellows Jack Fitzpatrick and Ethan Magoc look over documents in the Chyron Media Center in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State Univerity. Photo by Michael Ciaglo/News21

Who Can Vote?

In this year's News21 project, two dozen top student journalists from 11 universities are investigating the impact of recent changes in election laws and voting procedures across the country.

Is voting fraud a problem in America? Will new identification requirements at the polls disenfranchise prospective voters among minorities, college students or the elderly? Should ex-felons who've served their sentences be allowed to vote? Are voting machines reliable?